Meeting Number 1698

4:00 P.M.

January 30, 2008

A Second Look at "Redlands Firsts"

Stanley D. Korfmacher M.D.

Stanley D. Korfmacher M.D.

Summary

This paper is an update of Some Redlands Firsts and Almost-Firsts compiled by our own Larry Burgess in 1982.  There are additions, revisions and a few deletions as additional facts have surfaced, and some interesting tales to tell.  The list has grown from fourteen to forty-four, and they have been grouped in the following categories.

1. Water
2. Oranges
3. Electricity
4. Automobilia
5. Streets and Parks
6. Organizations and Events
7. Museums and Historic Buildings
8. Architecture
9. Redlands High School
10. The Pledge
11. Business
12. Miscellaneous

Introduction

This paper is an update of “Some Redlands Firsts and Almost Firsts compiled by our own Larry Burgess in 1982.  There are additions, revisions and deletions as additional facts have surfaced, and some interesting tales to tell about some of them.  The list has grown from fourteen to forty-four, and I have grouped them in several categories.

Thanks are due also to Nathan Gonzales in the Smiley Library Heritage Room and to Tom Atchley and the treasure trove of Redlands memorabilia in his home.

Water

I.   The Zanja

The Zanja will turn 189 years old in 2008.  It is the oldest irrigation ditch in California in continuous use.  It is California Historic Landmark #43, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.  It was also certified as a historical Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.  In 1970 it barely survived a plan by the San Bernardino Flood Control District to convert it to a concrete-lined channel in an 80 foot wide corridor eliminating Sylvan Boulevard and dividing Sylvan Park.  Only last year a nearby housing development was originally required to make flood control channels and barriers which would also have ruined the fine stretch of the Zanja between Wabash and University Avenues.  Tree removal was also planned and resisted, especially after the county removed many large trees in its section of the Zanja to the east.  Development also threatens the western portions.  Let us hope it can be preserved in the near and distant future.

1. Bear Valley

In the late 1870’s, E.G. Judson, a stock broker from New York City, and Frank E. Brown, a civil engineer out of Yale in New Haven Conn. came to California and settled in Lugonia, an agricultural colony founded in 1870.  They met, shared ideas and decided to form their own colony.  Judson and Brown purchased their first 160 acres of land with water shares from the Southern Pacific Company and from Dr. Ben Barton.  The Redlands Colony was officially formed in 1881; it was sold in ten acre tracts encouraging navel oranges.  There was no provision for a business district.  The colony thrived and Judson and Brown increased their holdings to 4000 acres, mostly from Dr. Barton who had used it to graze sheep.  Redlands streets were laid out at an angle to the compass for reasons of contour and irrigation.  A larger water supply was an obvious need.

It is said that Dr. Ben Barton, an excellent horseman who is know to have ridden four times to and from Sacramento as a state legislator in the 1860’s, was the first to suggest a dam at Bear Valley.  He had previously discovered the rich grasslands of Barton Flats, a forested bench at 6500 feet, up in the San Bernardino Mountains, and Barton Creek, providing summer grazing and water for his sheep and cattle.  His sheep numbered over 1200 at times.  While exploring for future grazing areas, Dr. Barton came upon Bear Valley.  His son Hiram, the first mayor of San Bernardino, rode up with engineer Frank Brown and all agreed it was a natural dam site.  There was geologic evidence of a previous lake which had broken through a stone barrier, possibly with the help of an earthquake.

The Redlands Water Co. was founded in 1881 by Judson and Brown.  F.P. Morrison came to Redlands in 1882 and immediately planted 5 acres of oranges.  He had also graduated from Yale at about the same time as Frank Brown.  He assumed responsibility for the financing of the Bear Valley Dam.  The Bear Valley Company was founded and 36 shares were issued;  six men had 5 shares each .They were Hiram Barton, Frank Brown, J.G. Burt, E.G. Judson, G.W. Mead and F.P. Morrison himself.  The Redlands Water Co. took three shares and others single and split shares.  Brown carried life insurance of $47,000 payable to the company in case something happened to him. The finances were a great strain on Morrison and Brown, especially when the Johnstown flood cast doubt on dams.  But the big masonry dam, one of the first in the West, with its unique delicate arch against the impounded water anchored against granite cliffs on each side was constructed from 1883 to 1885.  Mountain water came to Redlands and the surrounding area via natural channels, concrete canals, ditches and pipes as well as a giant wooden tube called “the syphon” which carried water across a deep valley by descending to the bottom and rising on the other side.  Three reservoirs in the Redlands area aided the storage and distribution. The lake became five miles long and up to one mile wide, possibly the largest man made reservoir in the world at the time and certainly in the United States.

Scribner’s Magazine (actually a large book) of January 1890 has an article, Water Storage in the West, (pp10-15) including descriptions of four recently constructed dams, three in California and one in Arizona, and their reservoirs.  One in the Central Valley impounded a lake of 650 acres and 5.5 billion gallons.  Near Walnut Grove, Arizona the dam’s lake was 750 acres and 4 billion gallons, the largest body of water in Arizona.  Near San Diego the lake was 725 acres and held 6 billion gallons.  The old Bear Valley dam created by far the largest lake of 2250 acres and 10 billion gallons, and we know that the new dam tripled that in 1912.

In 1912 a taller, multi-arch dam was constructed about 100 yards downstream from the original dam which greatly increased the lake and tripled its irrigation capacity to 73,000 acre feet.  Big Bear Lake became 7 miles long.  This dam also served as a bridge on the Rim of the World Highway.

In 2001 the American Society of Civil Engineers recognized both dams with a plaque-presentation ceremony on Highway 18 just west of the dam.  The first dam was documented as “the highest, boldest, most slender arch dam in the United States” at the time it was completed.  The second dam also was unique, with eleven buttresses connected by ten thin barrel arches; it required only one-third the usual concrete.  In 1988 it was reinforced with additional concrete to improve earthquake resistance.

III.     Percolation Basins

A little known but equally important water landmark is a true Redlands first:  the use of percolation basins alongside the Santa Ana River.  It was noted in the early 1900’s that heavy water  flows quickly sank through the sandy soil of the alluvial plain replenishing ground water and reviving wells which had failed in the drought of 1900-1903.  To catch more of this water, rock and gravel berms were made perpendicular to the flow, a series of catch basins, constructed by the Bear Valley Water Company in 1907.  Silt at the basin surfaces had to be removed periodically, but they were effective for years and the concept was extended downstream by the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District.

Oranges

1. Navel Oranges

The growth of the navel orange industry continued despite the drought of 1900-1903 and the terrible freezes of 1913 and 1937 and the flood of 1938.  Redlands could truly call itself “The Navel Orange Capital of the World” from 1895 to 1965.   450 rail-car loads were shipped by Redlands in 1895 according to the Citrograph.  At its peak in the 1930’s five thousand railcar loads were shipped via Southern Pacific, Santa Fe and Pacific Electric railroads from twenty-six packing houses in Redlands, Mentone, Crafton, Highland, Bryn Mawr and the Mission District.  Note that Redlands was the central and only incorporated city and also had its own ice plant along the Santa Fe at 6th St.  The decline started with canned orange concentrate, needed by the armed forces in WW II and much easier and cheaper to ship than whole oranges.  Florida embraced the idea, California did not, and the success of concentrate and of frozen orange juice in later decades was a major factor in the declining financials rewards of growing oranges, which in turn hastened the sale of groves to developers.  Growers were getting only two cents of the dollar at final market price in recent years.

II.   IOC

Enter the Inland Orange Conservancy, which gives us two more orange firsts!  Bob Knight “conceptualized” it in 2004 and the first season was spring 2005.  It is not only the first but also the largest CSA, Community Supported Agricultural Assn, non-profit in California!  Last year 293 tons of oranges from 21 growers were distributed as follows:  202 tons to 1280 subscribing families, 90 tons donated to Inland Harvest and one ton to Joseph’s Storehouse.

III.   Yum

It’s subjective, but I and many others who have tasted oranges around the world believe our local oranges are the tastiest!  They have sold for five dollars apiece in Tokyo and Japan could buy from anywhere in the world.  So we are still the first in quality if no longer in quantity.

Electricity

1. Exactly a year ago Ron Burgess gave his Fortnightly paper entitled “Redlands Powers the World – How the San Bernardino Valley Developed Modern Electric Power First”.  This well researched paper confirmed that the first commercially viable three-phase power plant in the world, Mill Creek No.1, was running September 7,1893 with two 2400 volt, 250 kilowatt generators; the first three-phase AC generators ever built by General Electric.  This confirmed the claim in Larry Burgess’ original list of Redlands firsts.

  Two weeks ago, Tom Atchley, our other senior historian, informed me that a three-phase generator on a Sierra stream near Mono Lake supplied Bodie (now a ghost town) 12 miles away for mining machinery and electric lighting before Redlands.  I doubted this in view of the detailed and difficult development of three phase generators and motors recorded in Ron Burgess’ paper.  An internet search for Bodie information revealed that in November 1892 the stamping mill there was changed from wood-fired steam to electric.  A hydroelectric power plant on Green Creek 13 miles away supplied the AC power at 3600 volts.  It reached a substation near the mill at 3000 volts and there was stepped down to 440 volts by a Tesla transformer.  There is no mention of three phase current, nor was any electricity sent to the town.  Another entry states “Electric power transmitted for the first time in Bodie by Hydro Electric Co. December 25, 1910”.  The only claim to fame made is that “Bodie was the first town (in the world?) to operate an electric stamp mill using AC over long distance lines”.

Thus I believe our Redlands claim is verified.  Additional support for Redlands primacy appears in “Illustrated Redlands” published in 1897; on page 89 we see “The Redlands Electric Light and Power Company was organized in October 1892 and began operation on its plant in August 1893, being the first three phase power transmission plant in the United States”.  Actually it was the first in the world, the second being three months later in Sweden, as detailed by Ron Burgess.  “Illustrated Redlands” continues:  “In the city of Redlands that company commenced business with nine hundred incandescent lights in the year 1894 and now (1897) have 5000 16 c.p. lamps in use”.  Also:  “The Redlands Company is now supplying electricity to municipal plants in the cities of Riverside and Colton, to the State Insane Asylum and to the Union Ice Company’s factory at Crafton”.  Tom Atchley adds that later they supplied power for the Pacific Electric lines all the way to Los Angeles.  Three phase AC power spread rapidly in California and the United States and throughout Europe, thanks in part to the Swedish success, and eventually became the standard of the entire world.  The huge DC generators at Niagara Falls were replaced in 1896.

1. In 1894, electric motors were used to pump water to Redlands citrus groves, the earliest known use of electric power in irrigation.  The pumps became popular and helped the entire region to get electric power long before many other rural areas.  This is another Redlands first.

  III.  The Crafton Ice Plant became the first electrical refrigeration using three-cycle    
               AC.

Automobilia

1. William G. Moore’s wonderful 1983 book “Redlands Yesterdays” tells the story of the first automobile in Redlands as follows:

 “Cass Gaylord introduced automobiles to Redlands in 1899.  In
January he placed an order with pioneers Elwood Haynes and
Elmer Apperson for a two-seater model of their horseless buggy
which they manufactured at their Kokomo, Indiana plant.  The price
was $1200.  It went 10 to 20 miles per hour.

When the vehicle was shipped five months later, it was the
first automobile west of the Rocky Mountains, although a second
auto arrived in Los Angeles a few days later.  Gaylord asked the City
Council for an ordinance permitting him to drive it.  However, Mayor
Fowler and the Council agreed that such vehicles could operate on
the city streets without further action.

Debut of Gaylord’s Haynes-Apperson proved sensational. When
the machine made its appearance upon the business streets today, the
Facts wrote, “it attracted attention from all.  There was a general emptying of business houses by the rush of people to see the thing run.

A crowd of boys on bicycles followed the car as they would the
band-wagon in a circus parade.  There had been fears about how
horses would react.  They showed little interest.  No horses broke from
their mooring and there were no runaways”.

Unfortunately, the five horsepower gasoline engine was
underpowered for the grade from town up Cajon Street to Cypress
venue where Gaylord lived.  After considerable trouble with the
car, he sold it to a Riverside doctor”.

The claim of the first automobile west of the Rocky Mountains was repeated in a Redlands Daily Facts article March 2, 1997 “Regarding Redlands” by Joan McCall,  but she hedged a bit in another article saying “Redlands was the first town west of the Rockies to feel the impact of automobile history”.

Tom Atchley tells me that a Los Angeles millionaire, possibly Doheney, used his influence on the Union Pacific Railroad to delay the shipment of Gaylord’s car to Redlands.  It was put on a side track before it even reached California so the millionaire’s car could be the first by several days.

II. The second car in Redlands was Dr. Christopher Sanborn’s steam-powered Locomobile runabout in 1900.  It cost $600, only half of the Haynes-Apperson, but that was still a year’s income for many.  The small vehicle arrived unassembled in a crate.  Dr. Sanborn’s sons Tom and August put it together and it was an instant success.  He put 1700 miles on the car in six months with less than a week for repairs.  He invited F.E. Olds of Los Angeles to ride with him on an adventurous mountain ride, June 30, 1900, up City Creek toll road to Fredalba on a dirt road rutted from logging wagons and with horrendous grades up to 25% in places.  Then they drove to Crestline and finally down the Arrowhead Reservoir Co. toll road.  This was the first car to Crestline according to “Saga of the San Bernardinos” by Paliera LaFuze.

III. A small red hardcover book printed in 1913 by Western Guidebook Co. is entitled California – Tourist Guide and handbook.  Starting on page 309 are two pages of very fine print telling of the fine things in Redlands, including the following:  “The streets are broad and well kept; there are a number of excellent boulevards, as automobiling is popular about Redlands, the city having more automobiles per capita than any other community in California”.  The population at the time was 12,500.  I wonder if we might also have had the largest number of millionaires per capita!

IV. The first driver’s licenses in California were issued in Redlands in 1906.  They required a test and a test drive showing “proficiency and Knowledge”, the first testing for same.  These Redlands City Ordinances were copied by the state of California.

V. Hatfield Buick is the oldest continuous Buick dealer in the United States (and probably in the world).  It has always been shown as dating from 1913, including its own signage and a Redlands Daily Facts article September 29, 2002 with an interview with Bill Hatfield owner and grandson of the founder.  But Larry Burgess says it was started in 1911 since he found Buick advertising from Hatfield on that date, but Bill would not change the sign!

VI.  The first autos to make it to Big Bear were a pair of touring cars with Redlands’ John Fisher as organizer and head driver.  This was in 1908.  They went via Lucern Valley and Cushinberry Road to Baldwin Lake, then on to Big Bear.

Streets and Parks

I. The first white line down the center of a street or highway was here in Redlands at the Orange Street to Cajon curve in 1908, thanks to our city engineer, George Hinkley.  Popular Mechanics reported it.  It was also reported in Edith Hinkley’s 1951 book “On the Banks of the Zanja”.  However another person got credit for it.  In the February 2004 magazine Road and Track page 16 it was reported that in 1912  Dr. June Carroll of Indio created the ubiquitous highway centerline.  She decided to make a nearby stretch of dangerous road safer by personally painting a white line all the way down its middle – a full mile.  The California highway Commission soon saw, approved and adopted her idea.

II. Redlands has miles of beautiful cut-stone curbs and blocks of cut-stone  walls, some very tall as in and around the cemetery.  I know of no other city in California with such extensive stone works.

III Redlands has long been famous for the beauty and variety of its trees.  We  have 15,000 street trees alone.  If one travels north or east from Redlands there is no comparable city for a thousand miles.

IV. Redlands has a great number of parks and their total area is large for a city of 66,000.  Tom Atchley believes we may have a Redlands First here.  The list is impressive,  Brookside Park, Caroline Park, Community Park, Jennie Davis Park, Ford Park, Franklin Park, Ed Hales Park, Prospect Park, Smiley Park, Sylvan Park, Texonia Park and the new Sports Park.  Several are large parks and have fine views  and they offer a great variety of outdoor activities.

Organizations and Events

The Redlands Day Nursery is the oldest in California with License #1.  It was founded in 1906 and is still in operation.

The Redlands Horticultural and Improvement Society (founded in 1889 as United Women for Redlands) is California’s oldest garden club.  This was reported by Joyce Dean in a Redlands Daily Facts article in January, 2007.

The Spinet, founded October 15, 1894 is the oldest federated musical association in California and the second oldest in the United States.  It brought many world class artists and orchestras to Redlands for decades.

The Fortnightly Club, founded January 4, 1895 is not the oldest continuously meeting literary club in the country but could be west of the Mississippi River.

The Redlands Camera Club, founded 1896, is the oldest in California and possibly second oldest in the United States.

The Redlands Bowl, founded in 1923, is the oldest continuously running summer music festival without an admission charge in the United States.  Many important musicians and theater artists have had a good career beginning here.

Y.M.C.A.’s Youth Circus founded in 1941 is the worlds’ oldest according to the Redlands Daily Facts May 4, 2006.

The Redlands Bicycle Classic was # 2 in 1995 and 1996 and # 1 in the country in 1997. (Redlands Daily Facts)

Redlands Country Club:  The original list of Redlands Firsts states that “there is a debate over it and candidly we must admit that is the second oldest golf course in Southern California by a few months”.  It was founded November 21. 1896. 

The very first course in California was out on Catalina Island but did not last.  Mr. Wrigley turned it into a training center for the Chicago Cubs.

The second course in California and the oldest existing is the Burlingame Country Club, organized in 1893.  Strangely, internet information entitled “A Brief History of Burlingame” by Russ Cohen, President of the Burlingame Historical Society, makes no such claim.  The founding fathers chose the name Burlingame and the area surrounding the club became known by that name as well.  In 1894, the Burlingame Train Station was built to service the Country Club and was paid for mostly with private funds supplied by their members.  Today the station is on the National Register of Historic Places and is also designated a State Historic Landmark.  The Burlingame Country Club is actually in Hillsborough.  The residents around the Club were fearful of losing their country setting in the midst of the post San Francisco earthquake housing construction boom incorporated their own town, Hillsborough.

Next in line is the Presidio Golf Course in San Francisco founded by the private San Francisco Country Club.  During the Spanish-American War the course remained open but was extensively used for Army training and drill.  It was also used as a refugee camp after the 1906 earthquake.  It was expanded to 18 holes in 1910.  The Presidio golf course was open only to active and retired Armed Forces officers living within 30 miles and to the civilian members of the San Francisco Club.  Combined membership reached 1200 in 1964.  The Army attempted to control the course as the United Service Golf Club but orders from Washington D.C. were never enforced and the two clubs enjoyed a long unique partnership.  In October 1995 it became a public course and part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Next comes either Del Monte Golf Course, constructed for the use of the grand Del Monte Hotel, or the Redlands Country Club.  The Del Monte Course and History entries available on the internet give no founding date!  They say, apparently ignorant of Burlingame, that only two of California’s earliest golf courses remain in operation:  Del Monte and the Presidio. Because the Presidio course was temporarily converted back into a practice drill field, Del Monte Golf Course claims the distinction of being the oldest golf course in continuous operation west of the Mississippi River.  There is an apparent reference to change in course site.  “Because the hotel’s own land was occupied by a race track and polo field, the nine-hole Del Monte Course had to be constructed offsite, on a land leased from a man named David Jacks.  The course you play today is still located near the foot of Jack’s Peak”.

On November 21, 1896, 30 men organized the Redlands Golf Club.  The clubhouse was built in December 1896 and the golf course opened June 1897 with nine holes on land leased from the Ford family.  The Redlands Country Club Company incorporated June 25, 1900 and expanded the course with the purchase of 80 acres in October 1900.  Note, this did not change the site of the course.  A larger clubhouse was built and opened in 1901.

Just for perspective, the first U.S. golf course was in Yonkers, N.Y. in 1888 with six holes.  The Chicago Golf Club ha the first 18 hole course in the U.S. in 1893.

I believe Redlands can claim the third oldest course in continuous use on the same site west of the Mississippi; second if we, like Del Monte, deny the Presidio continuous operation.  If Burlingame had a lapse, we could even claim a Redlands first!

We all know that Redlands is a big Fourth of July town, but our fireworks show in the stadium of  the University of Redlands is world class.  They are done by the same company, Pyro Spectaculars of Rialto, which directed the fireworks displays at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.  In 2001 the Redlands 4th of July show was “the biggest pyromusical in the state” according to Pyro Spectaculars’ Jeff Martin who directed it.  (Redlands Facts supplement July 2001).  We consistently rank in the top handful of shows in the western states.

Presidential visits give us another first or two, as detailed in a supplement to the Redlands Daily Facts in March 2003.  In the cases of both McKinley on May 7, 1901 and Teddy Roosevelt on May 8, 1903, Redlands was their first stop in California, much to the chagrin of Los Angeles.  Both McKinley and Roosevelt greatly enjoyed their visits.  Redlands was highly decorated, the horses and carriages excellent, the weather fine.  Both spoke from the balcony of the Casa Loma Hotel.  Roosevelt was greeted by his old friend Albert Smiley in Canyon Crest and pronounced the view “a sight for the Gods”.  Taft on October 12, 1909 went to Los Angeles first and was sorry he did.  On a boat trip around the harbor his boat got stuck in a mud bank, putting him behind schedule.  He was able to spend only an hour in Redlands, but was in an automobile, from which he gave a five minute speech at the Casa Loma, and then went on a fast tour of the city.

Museums and Historic Buildings

Sadly, Redlands does not have a municipal art museum, though the University of Redlands has an art museum, and our historical museum has yet to find a home.  We do, however, have several museums which provide us with Redlands “firsts”.

The large San Bernardino County Museum is in Redlands and has several remarkable collections.  The commemorative book of 1974 states:  The largest bird egg collection in the world, and recognized nationally as the “best” is Wilson Hanna’s gift of over 100,000 eggs. The Hanna Egg Collection representing half of all the known species (including several extinct ones) is displayed in 7,000 sq. feet of floor space, the largest egg collection on public display in the world according to Walter Schuiling’s 2002 publication (pp17-9).  There are fine mineral and fossil collections and early man artifacts which no doubt would furnish some esoteric “firsts”. The “Old Woman”, the second largest meteorite to be discovered in the United States should be in the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands.  It was essentially “stolen” by the Smithsonian and cut apart.  In 1968 the museum acquired the John C. Belcher mounted mammal collection of 28 full sized mounts; the polar bear, Canadian woodland bison and Alaskan moose are all world trophy recordswithout equal in any museum.  Holdings also include the Asistencia, the Sepulveda Adobe in Yucaipa, the oldest house in the county (1841-1842), the Yorba-Slaughter Adobe (1853) in Chino and the Casa de Rancho Cucamonga (1860) the oldest brick house, which had a thatched roof covered with tallow and tar!

The Redlands Historic Glass Museum, founded 1976 is California’s only all glass museum.  Recently expanded with a second Victorian house moved to an adjacent lot, there will soon be displays of contemporary American and European art glass as well.

The first and only Lincoln memorial museum and library west of the Mississippi was built in Redlands in 1932.  It is considered to be one of the three finest Beaux Arts Classical buildings in Southern California according to David Gebhard of U. C. Santa Barbara in his Redlands Conservancy lecture and paper of March 1995.

Kimberly Crest Mansion is essentially a museum of architecture and interior decoration done by top names of 1897.  The landscaping was done was done in 1906 also by a top name, Edmund Bergstrom. It retains most of the original furniture, fixtures and art work and is open to the public.

The Morey House, “America’s favorite Victorian” recently refurbished by Janet Cosgrove, has many of the same attributes and is now an upscale bed and breakfast destination.  Both Kimberly Crest and Morey House have been pictured often and featured in books on architecture and in national magazines.

The Redlands Postal Museum, occupying the Postmaster’s office in our beautiful old post office was founded by our own Fred Edwards and previous postmaster, James Owens.  It is the first and only one in the entire country other than the Smithsonian’s Postal Museum in Washington D.

C.  Permission was obtained from the Post Office Department.  The Smithsonian donated three items and was willing to donate more if they had had more space.  The opening ceremony was July 8, 1995.

One of two wonderful buildings no longer with us is the Casa Loma Hotel, arguably the finest in the entire valley.  It stood on the N.E. corner of Orange St. and Colton Ave. and was completed in 1896.  It was demolished in 1955 for a Stater Bros.  market.  The other building was the Wyatt Opera House across Orange from the Casa Loma Hotel.  It had seating for 1300 and the fourth largest stage in California  Many famous musicians and actors performed in it.  It was razed in 1929.

The Barton House, recently and thankfully saved from demolition by Dr. Terry Vines, is a Redlands icon and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  It is the oldest brick structure in the San Bernardino Valley and probably in a much larger area from Cucamonga to the Colorado River and beyond.  It is also the first “pretentious” home in the area.  It was built by Dr. Ben Barton, M.D., an amazing man who came to wear many hats in this area.  He was a physician who offered his medical services to all free, a dentist, druggist, farmer viticulturist, sheep and cattle rancher, San Bernardino’s first salaried postmaster, town councilman, county superintendent of schools and state assemblyman!.  The house was finished in1867 and sat on 640 acres which included the Asistencia where he and his family lived during construction. Thousands of bricks had been fired from clay on the site; the third floor is wood.  He gradually increased his land holdings to 2080 acres with 500 cultivated.

His vineyards which eventually had 180,000 vines yielded 25,000 gallons of wine and 3500 of brandy in 1869.  He established the Brookside Winery, named for the proximity to the Zanja, and by 1883 this winery was the largest in California producing 65-70,000 gallons annually.  In 1884 he sold it to his employee, Emile Vache, who moved operations to three buildings on San Timoteo Canyon Road at the foot of Fern Avenue.  These buildings, including a very large and fine brick barn still stand.  Brookside Winery still is in business, headquartered in Guasti, California.

Architecture

Redlands is fortunate in having been a destination for many wealthy Easterners who built marvelous mansions on our broad streets and hilltops and used the newly available water to create beautiful grounds and gardens and even small lakes as in the Smileys' Canon Crest development.  Many architectural styles are found in these mansions and also in lesser homes all over Redlands.  This diversity and the number of fine examples in one small city is, I believe, unique in California if not the entire West. 

The following architectural descriptions are largely from David Gebhard’s paper.

The Burrage Mansion, 1901, is an impressive example (according to McAllister & McAllister’s text book, the most impressive) of Mission Revival style in the West.

The Smiley Library, 1897, and the Holt House, 1903, on Olive Street combine the mission style with “Richardsonian Romanesque, the same style as the early buildings of Stanford University, 1901.

The Santa Fe Station, 1909 and the Prosellis at the Redlands Bowl, 1930, and the Watchorn Lincoln Memorial, 1931 and 1937, are considered masterpieces of classical Beaux Arts.

Redlands has a remarkably early version of the bungalow court, across from McKinley School.  The first three units were built 1909-1910; they are perfect California Craftsman style and are unique in that they face out to the street  not into a central court.  According to Tom Atchley they were the first to have shared walls, i.e. they were condominiums; he considers this to be a true Redlands first.

Normandy Court, 1926, is also considered a bungalow court with fifteen miniature medieval French farmhouses evoking a fairy-tale world.

Redlands has several streets lined with Craftsman bungalows and a good number of large, stately Craftsman homes.

We also have Eastlake, Queen Anne, Egyptian Revival, Streamline Modern, Mid-century Modern and Contemporary architecture.

There are many other mansions in Redlands, such as the Sterling, and the Edwards, which was moved in two pieces from Cajon Street to the County Museum area and the Kendall House at Plymouth Village.

Redlands churches show great quality and diversity also.  One need look no farther than the intersection of Cajon and Olive where the Mission Revival Baptist Church, the Contemporary Methodist Church and the Neo-Gothic Congregational Church are all together and the Modern Presbyterian Church is just down the block.

Business buildings range from our wonderful old brick downtown to the beautiful modern forested campus of ESRI by Leon Armantrout, who also did the Methodist Church.  

The University of Redlands recently added a unique addition to its campus, the very “green” Enviromental Studies Building.

Finally, we have another “first”, the only Pullman car, the “General Lawton” rehabilitated as a deluxe guest house by Jack Sessums.

Redlands High School

First Union High School of Redlands was the first public high school in the state to be formed from consolidation of elementary school districts, namely Redlands Elementary, Lugonia and Crafton.  The site was contentious, but a compromise was reached.  The high school had a separate Board until 1963.  They were taken to court to determine the legality of the consolidation according to the Citrograph, 1891, or, if we go by “Only One Redlands”, we were the first community in the state to act on a new state law, the Voorhies California High School Education Bill of May 1891.  Prior to this, California funded only through the 8th grade.

Redlands High School is the oldest in California on the same site according to Larry Burgess but San Bernardino might dispute it according to Tom Atchley.

Redlands High School was also the state’s largest in enrollment on a standard nine month schedule from 1980 to 1995.

The Makio is the oldest high school yearbook in continuous publication, since 1903.

The Pledge to the Flag

Excerpted from “Only One Redlands”
The pledge of allegiance to the flag was written by Mr. Francis Bellamy to be recited by all of America’s children at the four hundredth anniversary celebration of Columbus’ discovery of America.  In Redland, the ceremonies began with a morning parade from downtown to Kingsbury School, where the President’s proclamation was read, the flag raised and saluted, and the pledge given by the children.  Then back downtown for daylong festivities.  Everyone forgot the pledge except Mary Fackler and her first graders.  She kept it going in her classes which included the children of Col. (later General) Lawton, who brought his house guest, General Breckenridge, to hear them.  General Breckinridge in turn took it to a huge Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution meeting in Washington D.C, where the pledge called a ‘special salute” was given by the children to great acclaim and taken home by the attendees to the entire country.  Mrs. Lawton wrote a letter to Mary Fackler on March 11, 1897 telling her of the meeting and concluding “it is all owing to you”.

Businesses

I have already mentioned Hatfield Buick, the oldest Buick dealer in the world and Dr. Barton’s Brookside Winery, the largest in California.

In 1881, the first domestic well water came to Redlands from Crystal Springs Ranch and went to the Prospect Hotel which previously made do with barrels of water from the Zanja.  Later it was piped to Kimberly Crest.  In 1887 the Crystal Springs Water company sold bottled water only, the oldest such company in the San Bernardino Valley.  Mrs. Shirk used the bottles until her death in 1977, 90 years later.

In 1900, Frank E. Brown organized the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, capitalized at four million dollars, one million of which was the first preferred stock ever issued by a California company (Only One Redlands, p. 103).

ESRI is the largest GIS and mapping company in the world.  It also is the fourth largest software producer in the world.

Lockheed purchased the Grand Central Rocket Company of Redlands which was founded in 1954 and employed up to one thousand people.  It was the largest producer of solid propellant in the country until it lost a large contract and closed in 1975.  Lockheed Propulsion occupied 700 acres in the Mentone area.  In 1973 a rocket appeared on the Redlands City seal.

According to the Redlands Daily Facts, January 11, 2008, reprinting an article from the Facts January 13, 1908, Redlands had the second largest ripe olive pickling plant on the Pacific Coast.  It was on Lugonia and Alta streets, a huge building. The  brand was “Bohemian Olives”” The owner was J.C. Kubias.

Miscellaneous

The “R” on the mountains north of Redlands is the only such letter in the country on National Forest land and the last one left by special act of Congress.  The “R” is maintained by students and alumni of the University of Redlands.
          
Redlands has the first police department in the nation to begin using maps to track factors that make areas more prone to crime.  Police Chief Jim Bueerman started with Risk Focused Police Initiative in 1997, then in2002, with $625.000 in federal grant money he launched the East Valley Compass Initiative. Redlands is the third city to use this federal program after successes in Milwaukee and Seattle. From The Riverside Press Enterprise Oct. 11, 2002

Bibliography

On the Banks of the Zanja,  Edith Parker Hinkley
Only One Redlands  Lawrence Emmerson Parker Publisher by the Redlands Community Music association 1963
Redlands – Remembrance and Reflection,  Larry E. Burgess, Redlands Federal Savinging and Loan Assn.  1981
The Citrograph  as cited
The Redlands Daily Facts  as cited
Scribner’s Magazine  January 1890 pp 10-13: Water Storage in the West
Victorian Homes Magazine Feb. 2001 and Dec. 2004
California Tourist Guide and Handbook  Wells and Aubrey Drury 1913 published by Western Guide and Handbook Co.  Berkeley, Ca. pp309-311
Postcard History Series Redlands  Randy Briggs and Fred Edwards 2006  Arcadia Publishing  San Francisco, Ca.
Barton House supplement San Bernardino County Sun June 21, 1998 Steven Church   
Bulletin of the San Bernardino County Medical Society, June 1996 pp 20-22
Roger A. Smith, M.D.
Redlands Architecture – Regionalism and Nationalism 1860-1940  David Gebhard
Paper for the Redlands Conservancy lecture Mar. 22, 1995
Images of America – Redlands Larry Burgess, PhD. And Nathan Gonzoles, PhD.
2004-2005 Arcadia Publishing
Redlands California – Chamber of Commerce publication 1963,  1895 reprint
Review of History of Mill Creek Zanja 1960’s and 1970’s  Nathan Gonzoles
Internet Sites:      
www.Bodie.com   2008
Electric History of Southern Ca. 2004 Red Fusion Media www.electrichistory.com
Presidio of San Francisco Golf Course Dec. 26, 2002  Nat. Park Service Archive
A Brief history of Burlingame  Russ Cohen  www.burlingame.com
Del Monte Golf History   www.pebblebeach.com
Redlands Country Club  www.redlandscountryclub.com
Historical Glass Museum pamphlets
Living in Redlands magazine supplement, Redlands Daily Facts 2002
Redlands Fortnightly Paper Number 1740 Ronald L. Burgess Jan.18, 2007
Redlands Powers the World – How the San Bernardino
Valley Developed Modern Electric Power First
Museum Musing:  50 years with the San Bernardino County Museum Assn.
Walter C. Schuiling PhD S.B.C.M.A. Quarterly Vol. 49, #s 3&4 2002,  Redlands, California.
San Bernardino County Museum Commemorative Edition 1974 Helena G. Allen